I'm a full-time mummy

Last year, I wrote about a look back into my home-cooked journey so far. Then shortly before the end of 2014, I wrote a post on my preparation when cooking. Then I thought, "Why not snap a picture of before start cooking and the final results after cooking?"

So, here you go..

Left part of the picture is the ingredients all ready to be cooked on 30th March 2015. From top left (clockwise): Spinach (washed, rinsed), a cup of sliced garlic (about 7-8 cloves), a bowl of anchovy base sauce, sliced pork marinated with sugar + sweet soy sauce, a bowl of chili sauce + curry powder + salt pepper,  sliced pork marinated with sugar + sweet soy sauce, a bowl of snap peas (ends removed, chopped into 1 inches long) and a bowl of sweet soy sauce + water + salt pepper.

My dinner dishes for that day? Click on the dish name to check out my recipe.

• Chinese Spinach Saute With Garlic in Anchovy Soup

• Stir-fry Spicy Pork

• Stir-fry Pork with Snap Peas in Sweet Soy Sauce
  

In case you are interested to view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

Our youngest kiddo (she's 1.5 years old btw) loves to follow me around. I can barely have a few seconds peace before she comes looking for me. One morning while I was preparing the ingredients to make soup for the day's dinner, as usual, Carolyn came along and refuses to let me do my work in peace. 

So I thought of just giving her some small little tasks for her to help me out rather than she walks around, clinging onto my legs or crying and whining for me to take her away. I got a chair and let her stand next to me on the chair. I was chopping and slicing some vegetables so what I did was I put the sliced ingredients into a small bowl which she can access to easily.

Then I guided her to take the sliced vegetables and put them into my slow cooker. With every sliced vegetables she put in, I cheered her on and complimented her for being a good helper! She was so happy to be praised and she kept saying 'amor!' (means 'somemore') so fast that I had trouble keeping up with her!

Now why this falls into the 'Teaching & Learning Moments!'?

* I get to teach our girl to help out with some housechores.

* I get to teach our girl to practise her motor skills and dexterity - to pick up the sliced vegetable and dropped them into the slow cooker.

* I don't need to hear her whine and cry while I'm doing my work.

* I get to boost her sense of accomplishments for being mummy's little helper!

Win-win!

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

I have been sharing some of my favorite angpow pieces on an angpow collectors group in Facebook and some members have been telling me to continue sharing my memorable stories and so I thought, why not write it down, that way, our kiddos can read about it when they grow up next time, eh?

For those of you who are not familiar or never heard of the words 'Angpow' (also known as 'ang pau', 'ang pao', 'angpau'), here is a quick definition:

Angpow = Red Packet (filled with cash inside) given during festivals

So for my first angpow story, it comes from this lovely piece of angpow:

The first thing that caught my eye when I saw this angpow is the bicycle.

First time I learned to ride a bicycle, it looks something like the bicycle in the picture, but black color which was from my grandpa/grandma time. I can't sit on the bicycle as I was very young (like 8-9 yrs old and the bicycle was really huge and high) so I just stood up and cycled and once it started going I was so happy, until I realized I don't know how to brake.

I almost crashed into one of those Chinese altars on the ground when I finally figured out how to brake LOL. This incident is very vivid in my mind because as I crash brake on the spot few inches away from the Chinese altar, I rammed my crotch onto the metal rim on the bicycle because I was standing up while cycling and as I slammed to brake the bicycle, I had no choice and do not know how to balance myself while figuring out how to brake, I put my 2 legs down and stepped on the ground to stop the bicycle and hence, ramming my crotch. Very very very painful!

Of course, after the pain subsides and getting my first lesson in bicycle riding, I went on to have loads of memorable experiences riding the bicycle around my village with my cousins! What a sweet childhood memories!

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.